Scalpers are a plague upon the Pokemon community. I know this. Everybody does. But I’m also not usually buying the stuff that these vultures target. Now, however, I’m looking at eBay listings for the Pokemon World Championships Pikachu plushies that I wasn’t able to get because I didn’t get in through the event’s bunk-ass lottery system, and I’m falling to my knees in despair.
Each year, the Pokemon World Championships has an exclusive Pikachu plush dressed up to reflect the tournament’s theme. This year, there were two plushies, one for Worlds and a second for the new XP fan convention that took place alongside the competition. The Worlds Pikachu is a boy dressed as a king, while the XP Pikachu is a girl dressed as an astronaut. They’re both perfect and deserve good homes with people who love them. Instead, scalpers are selling them for hundreds of dollars on eBay.
These plushies are sold at the event for $25, so the markup is already ridiculous, and that’s not even counting the costs of shipping and handling. Several sellers are putting both plushies in one package, so if you just wanted one of the two you’re going to have a harder time, and even then the cheapest you’ll usually find them for is around $80, which is still insane. There’s a chance that if I’m patient enough the price will go down, as you can find listings for last year’s Anaheim Worlds Pikachu for around $60 a year out, but if I’ve learned anything about myself it’s that I’m not patient when it comes to the little yellow guy.
I’ve still never been to Worlds, so I’ve not had a lot of opportunities to nab one of these exclusive plushies. I do have the one from the 2022 London event who wears a cute little top hat thanks to a friend who was at the show. But the plush that depicts him as the royalty he is calls to me like the Green Goblin mask. Damn these Mandibuzzes.